In his Apology of Socrates, Plato presents an imaginative version of Socrates' defense against the accusations that he did not believe in the city's gods, brought in new gods, and corrupted the youth. As Plato's Socrates defends himself, he says many things that seem to be bound to antagonize the jury, from reminding the jury early in his defense of how he angered the leading authorities in Athens, to his suggestion toward the end that he should be rewarded rather than punished for his behavior. The question therefore arises: did Socrates deliberately bring down upon himself the verdict of guilty and the punishment of death by antagonizing the jury? I will argue that Plato's Socrates does commit "suicide by jury " because of Socrates' own arrogance and his appearance of being a wise guy, unintentionally, is his own demise.
Socrates believes that what he has done is the right thing to do and will not try to defend himself against the right thing. Socrates enjoys taunting the men and even declares on page 37, "Death is something I couldn't care less about, " and on page 38, "I will not beg you to acquit me. " A vindication that he believes all he has done to be the right thing to do and he will not beg for his life nor take back his actions. Socrates discloses, "That I will not yield to any man contrary to what is right, " (page 36) he regards that his actions are what is just instead of what the law proclaims. Socrates clearly does not care if he is put to death only to fully admit what he has been charged with however in different scenes in the case he does try to build some sort of defense and fails.
During his journeys, Socrates embarked to discover a man wiser than himself to prove he was not the wisest. However, in explaining his travels he is forced to admit that every man he found was ignorant and he, unfortunately, was more astute than they were. Page 26 details the first man he encountered and states, "I thought that he appeared wise to many people and especially to himself, but he was not.
